MSAUD Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation

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Additive Enterprise – Group 4

Small businesses are engines of the economy. Growth of small businesses in the U.S. has been tremendous in the last two years providing about 8 million new jobs and accounting 54% of the total U.S. sales. Our incubator, Make [in] Newburgh, a new non for profit, envisions building small business in Newburgh to create big impacts towards Engaging with Education, Activating the Workforce, and Expanding Economies. By engaging with the existing skills of the workforce, activating neighborhoods and expanding through showcasing Newburgh’s creative interface, this will become a replicable model for similar communities within the Hudson River Valley region. Linking incremental private investments with small public improvements along the William & Dubois corridor reflects an urban strategy that we call Additive Enterprise.

Additive Enterprise is a framework to spur the transformation of urban corridors by promoting the growth and success of small businesses. By re-purposing existing vacant buildings and parcels the project strategically clusters and supports small enterprises, educational opportunities and new public spaces within the city. In Newburgh, this transformation takes place along the William and Dubois Street corridor that connects two of the city’s key anchor institutions, South Middle School and St Mary’s College. The corridor provides new spaces that can serve as incubators for art, hardware and food entrepreneurs while promoting greater community interaction. This is achieved through three strategies: Engage, Activate and Expand.The project engages with the existing skills of the workforce while creating a place for greater exposure and opportunity for hands-on learning as well as support to establish startup businesses through Make [in] Newburgh, the network of Hardware, Art, and Kitchen Incubators.

These would activate the buildings along the corridor by generating an incremental growth of small businesses, which would bring a critical mass of interaction to the street while transforming it into mixed used neighborhood. Make [in] Newburgh], is a non-for-profit with partnership to educational and community organization such as Boces, Suny, Safe Harbors of the Hudson, and Habitat for Humanity. These provide a programmatic link for people along the corridor to explore new possibilities, to build upon their experiences or learn new skills, and to inspire new ventures. The City of Newburgh would promote a more active public realm to better allow people and neighborhoods to safely connect and interact. Finally, the process expands through scaling up and promoting businesses through the Cultural Expo-center, overlooking the Hudson River that showcases the skills, products and services that various enterprises can offer within the Hudson River Valley region.